Creditors Take Control as Tech Site Gigaom Shuts Down

A statement from Malik revealed little else except for a heart-felt ‘goodnight.’ Gigaom, one of the top tech news sites, suddenly shut down last night. This hurts more than I can say: I was just told Gigaom is shutting down — it has run out of money. We tried our best, but it wasn’t enough. The news underscores the seeming fragility of content publishing online—especially given the suddenness and finality of the decision, and the amount of investment that backed Gigaom. The site raised an $8 million round in early 2014 led by Shea Ventures, just as founder Om Malik decided to leave the company to join True Ventures as a partner. Staffers took to Twitter to relay the news. The nature of the tweets suggest the shutdown was a surprise. Walborsky left Gigaom in September 2014. “Our growth will never be the growth of big media companies,” then-CEO Paul Walborsky told Folio: in early 2013, describing a strategy embedded in the company from the start. “Pageviews grow exponentially, but advertising only grows with GDP. Put those together and ad revenues are limited. Given those limitations—never reaching 100 million uniques and declining ad rates—we need to do more than ad revenues. What we’re building is not pageviews, we’re building long-term relationships with the audience.” The site later confirmed the news with its own post, adding that it was unable to pay its bills. Bankruptcy is not being considered as an option. “We do not know at this time what the lenders intend to do with the assets or if there will be any future operations using those assets,” says the statement. “The company does not currently intend to file bankruptcy.” — Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) March 10, 2015 As of 5 pm today we are owned by trustees (SVB). They are in charge of our payments and our events. — Stacey Higginbotham (@gigastacey) March 10, 2015 Nevertheless, like many other sites of its scale—the site claims 6.5 million monthly visitors—Gigaom diversified from a strictly ad-supported model by launching a series of events and a subscription-based data service.

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This news follows RR Donnelley’s touting the success of its Press+ platform, now used by 323 publications to launch paid content models online. In June 2011, the company acquired Helium.com to enhance its content creation offerings—one of a series of acquisitions it made to broaden its services. In August, it purchased LibreDigital, which provides digital magazine replicas, data analytics and content for more than 40 e-commerce sites. That same month, the company bought software company Sequence Personal to bolster its custom digital publishing services. Finally, in October, all of that build-up paid off when it struck a $550 million deal through 2020 with American Media Inc. to assist the OK! and Star publisher with its digital convergence.Greater Reach, Smarter SolutionsRecently, Wisconsin-based printer Quad/Graphics bought a minority stake in India-based print service and business solutions provider Manipal Technologies. ManipalTech is a printer of security, marketing, branding and communications products, but the company is also developing products with embedded technology like fingerprint recognition, printed electronics and near field communication (NFC).President and CEO Joel Quadracci says Quad has a firmer grasp on the traditional printing business, while ManipalTech brings a sharper-edged technology suite.Already, publishers are taking advantage of Quad’s expanding services. WIRED incorporated NFC into 500,000 subscriber copies of its April issue. An NFC-powered ad launches a mobile site when users tap an NFC-enabled Android smartphone to the page. Print Base, Digital Add-On“Our customer revenue mix has shifted to include non-print,” says Steve Grande, vice president of sales with commercial printer Fry Communications. Fry now includes a litany of companies under the Fry Family Network umbrella, such as Thumb Media Group (focused on mobile technology); Aysling Digital Media Solutions (a distributor of WoodWing editorial workflow systems, mobile and content management systems); and Circulation Specialists Incorporated, among other services.Due to this growing list of offerings, Grande says his team specializes in the consultative sale. “Sometimes, publishers are challenged in the digital market; some publishers know exactly what they want to do. We help apply proper technologies and make them accessible, and provide the services they really need,” he says.Despite the promise of the digital publishing space, Grande says print still represents 80 to 90 percent of Fry’s business. “The non-print portions of our business become the differentiating factor in our offerings to customers. With things the same in print, the digital expertise is a significant benefit and a tipping point of our sale,” he says. With the race on for expanding magazine brands onto a variety of platforms, particularly the kind that don’t involve paper, printers are finding new ways to serve clients and draw in new revenue. Some of these tactics include launching multiplatform services, in addition to combining digital and print solutions for a one-stop shop for publishers.Digital DiversificationContinuing to diversify beyond its role as a printer, RR Donnelley recently made a $2.5 million investment in catalog shopping app CoffeeTable, which allows tablet users to browse and purchase from multiple retailers’ catalogs directly within the application.“Our core business is delivering multi-channel solutions,” says Ann Marie Bushell, president of RR Donnelley’s CustomPoint Solutions. Like cataloguers, she adds, “[Publishers] want a provider that can take content from creation to delivery, across a variety of media.”

Police in the country’s northernmost community say a convicted felon shot and killed a state assistant prosecutor in a jealous rage over a woman.Download AudioMurder charges were filed Wednesday in Barrow against 47-year-old Ronald Fischer in the death of 48-year-old assistant district attorney Brian Sullivan.North Slope Borough police say Sullivan was killed Monday night in the Barrow home of a woman who had a past relationship with Fischer.Investigators say Sullivan was unarmed and seated on a couch when he was struck twice with blasts from a 20-gauge shotgun fired by Fischer.They say security video from a nearby store shows Fischer entering the home.Online court records did not list a lawyer for Fischer. Attorney Robert Campbell represented him this year in a felony case, but says he won’t be handling Fischer’s murder charge.Sullivan was an Army veteran and former Washington state House representative.

Share Photo by Shelby TauberUT students Alfonso Galindo holds onto Erica Gomez during a community gathering in honor of Haruka Weiser on the University of Texas campus on April 7, 2016.Austin police have arrested 17-year-old Meechaiel Criner in connection with the death of University of Texas at Austin student Haruka Weiser, who was killed earlier this week, police officials said Friday.Criner, who police believe is homeless and unaffiliated with the university, will be charged with murder, a first-degree felony, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said at a news conference. Although Acevedo declined to comment on whether Criner had confessed, officers had a “high degree of certainty and confidence” that they “had the suspect responsible for her murder,” he said.According to Acevedo, police officers took Criner into custody at LifeWorks, a homeless shelter and advocacy agency in Austin, late Thursday afternoon. It was local officers who had originally taken Criner to LifeWorks on Monday evening, after he started a trash can fire on Medical Arts Street, a few blocks from where Weiser’s body was found. After the police released the video of their suspect on Thursday, Austin firefighters and an unidentified woman from UT called in tips that Criner appeared to be the man on the video, based on his physical attributes and the clothing he was wearing. Criner also had a pink woman’s bicycle, like the suspect in the video.University of Texas police officer David Carter, noting that Criner was homeless, acknowledged at a press conference that there are “areas of concern” in the student neighborhood immediately west of campus, but said he did not intend to “single out any group of people.” “We’re in close proximity — we’re in a major metropolitan area with a somewhat significant homeless population, especially to the west of campus,” Carter added.“Being homeless is not a crime,” Acevedo added.Weiser, a freshman ballet student from Portland, Oregon, was found on campus Tuesday morning. Austin police officials said Weiser was likely killed late Monday while she was on her way to her dorm room. Austin police are working with police departments from the University of Texas and the UT System, as well as the Texas Rangers, to solve the case, which has ignited a conversation about safety across the UT campus. This week, the administration has issued several warnings to students, asking them to walk in groups, especially at night. The university has also increased the number of officers on patrol, and the state has sent 20 troopers to further assist.UT administrators also announced they would be improving security measures in and around the College of Fine Arts, where Weiser’s body was found. UTPD has provided shuttle vans in the evening for students and staff leaving late-night rehearsals, and the College of Fine Arts announced it would reimburse any student who used a taxi, Uber or Lyft to travel from campus to their car after sundown.Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2016/04/08/police-suspect-custody-ut-homicide-case/.